Deep thoughts by James Comey

The four-page House Intelligence Committee memo on “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Abuses at the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation” has been released. John has posted the memo along with his summary in the adjacent post.

One would never know from his comments that former FBI Director James Comey is directly implicated in the memo’s recitation of facts and wrongdoing. He challenges no facts set forth in the memo. Speaking from Olympus, Comey faults the memo for “inexcusably expos[ing the] classified investigation of an American citizen.” Comey to the contrary notwithstanding, however, the FBI investigation of Page is not exactly a well-kept secret.

Today we learned that Comey signed off on the FBI “investigation” of Page. To the extent that the “investigation” relied on the dodgy Steele dossier produced at the behest of the Clinton campaign, it is not apparent that the FBI had probable cause to undertake the surveillance of “an American citizen” affiliated with the Trump campaign. The dodgy Steele dossier’s allegations against Page, if not fabricated by Steele himself, have no apparent corroboration.

Comey says nothing about the investigation of Page (“an American citizen”) under the aegis of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act courtesy of allegations supplied by the Russian friends of Christopher Steele and, in all likelihood, Vladimir Putin (if the dossier is as represented). Jack Handey could not be reached for comment.

That’s it? Dishonest and misleading memo wrecked the House intel committee, destroyed trust with Intelligence Community, damaged relationship with FISA court, and inexcusably exposed classified investigation of an American citizen. For what? DOJ & FBI must keep doing their jobs.

In which Jim Comey explains how he's good with using Clinton campaign documents to get spying powers, and good with not being straight up with a FISA Court. Good to know that's how some FBI leadership thinks. https://t.co/lfXIZeDCIn